One of Aamir Siddiqi’s alleged killers has been quizzed about his movements on the night his co-accused was arrested.

One of Aamir Siddiqi’s alleged killers has been quizzed about his movements on the night his co-accused was arrested.

It came as Ben Hope, 39, continued to be cross-examined by John Charles Rees QC, defending for co-accused Jason Richards.

The court had previously heard that Mr Richards, 38, was arrested on April 14, 2010 - 3 days after the attack on promising student Aamir had taken place.

Mr Rees said that, from CCTV footage, Mr Hope was seen leaving his home in Janner House just after 8pm on the day Mr Richards had been arrested, and was gone for some four and a half hours, returning after 1am the following morning.

“If we look at the telephone schedule, at 8.18pm is the last phone call you make until 9.03am the following morning,” said Mr Rees.

“Your phone is incommunicado, it is very unusual for you,” he added.

Mr Hope replied that there were times when he turned his phone off.

“The fact is you could not be traced by your phone at that time. Can you remember now where you had gone? It is the same day Mr Richards had been arrested,” said Mr Rees.

Mr Hope replied: “It is possible I went to my girlfriend’s house.”

Mr Rees then put to Mr Hope that he had gone to the area behind where Mr Richards lived in North Road “the area the police later searched, the area you knew they would search as you knew Jason had been arrested”.

Mr Rees suggested to Mr Hope that he had gone there to retrieve “whatever items you had left there. I suggest your clothing, for example, balaclavas, knives, all of which disappeared, and you moved it”.

“No, it is not correct,” replied Mr Hope.

Mr Hope had previously told the court he was in a “drugs stupor” in North Road at the relevant time when Aamir was attacked on a Sunday afternoon in April 2010.

He alleged that, when he and his co-accused Mr Richards went to Cardiff Addictions Unit the day after Aamir was attacked, Mr Richards had said that “he might have killed someone or words to that effect”.

The court heard from Mr Rees that a drugs counsellor had described Mr Richards’s appearance as “perfectly normal” the day after Aamir was attacked.

The jury also learnt that Mr Hope had cancelled an appointment with his drugs counsellor that same day.

When asked by Mr Rees why this was, Mr Hope replied: “I just did not like to go to the appointments”.

Co-accused Mr Richards had previously told the court that he was not one of two men seen leaving his house around an hour before Aamir was brutally stabbed.

However, Mr Richards, alleged that Mr Hope was one of the men in question.

Promising student Aamir was attacked when he opened the front door of his home in Ninian Road, Cardiff.